Two men on a roof
work in silence,
shirts off,
coppering on that slant;
hammer aloft,
arm silhouettes against the sun
for that momentary pause
before the arc, described,
powers homeward
on a pinpoint of steel.
steady slamming beats nail by nail in place.
and tier on tier
progresses to the apex.
Then they stand,
swaying in the heat,
aglisten with their toil -
one foot on each half of the world they built
that slides away from that point
too close to heaven -
and descend to earth.
Lillian Susan Thomas
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/two-men-on-a-roof/
